KPMG Consulting and Microsoft launch new “Dot.com” Program

New York, and Redmond, WA, February 9, 2000 — KPMG Consulting LLC, a leading Internet integration services company, announced today that, together with Microsoft Corp., it is launching a new program for e-business driven customers. The program offers a streamlined approach to the development, integration and deployment of dot.com business solutions and provides support and development capabilities based on the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 operating system, the foundation for the Microsoft Business Internet initiative. The announcement comes as Microsoft gears up for its worldwide launch of Windows 2000 on February 17. KPMG Consulting will hire 500 professionals over the next 18 months who will be dedicated to a newly formed practice called the
“Microsoft Dot.com practice.”

KPMG Consulting’s Microsoft Dot.com practice delivers an end-to-end solution suite based on a comprehensive
“Dot.com Roadmap”
that addresses every phase of an e-business implementation, from strategy and planning to implementation and support. Together, the
“Dot.com Roadmap”
and the Windows 2000 platform can enable customers to address some of their most critical e-business requirements, including scalability, reliability, interoperability with other internal and external business systems, faster time to market, and lower total cost of ownership. KPMG Consulting will also create a KPMG and Microsoft co-branded Collaborative Development Lab that would allow customers to work directly with KPMG and Microsoft consultants to rapidly develop, integrate and deploy advanced and highly scalable and reliable dot.com businesses that take advantage of the Windows 2000 platform and the Microsoft Business Internet initiative.

The wide range of solutions that the two companies are making available include strategy, branding, creative design, Web technology integration, marketing and dot.com hosting services. Customers can outsource the hosting and management of their applications, if desired. The full range of these services will be delivered on a global basis, enabling rapid implementations for both domestic and internationally focused dot.com businesses.

“The whole focus of this initiative is to accelerate the time to value proposition for customers by enabling complete dot.com business implementations on the Microsoft Windows 2000 platform in two to six months using the latest Web technologies, tools and strategies,”
says Robin Hill, senior vice president , KPMG Consulting’s Microsoft Dot.com Practice.
“With our capabilities and experience in rapidly implementing dot.coms and the Windows 2000 platform as the foundation for the Dot.com program, we are offering an end-to-end, integrated solution that is reliable and scalable. This positions us well to deliver this new capability to a broad spectrum of customers in the growing global e-business space. Microsoft has contributed an exceptional level of support and vision to this initiative, and we believe that KPMG Consulting and Microsoft are uniquely suited to collaborate on this effort.”

Stephen B. Lane, Research Director, Professional Services, the Aberdeen Group, Inc. comments, “Going forward, success in e-Business will depend not only on being first to market, it will also require sound business practices and IT infrastructures that can scale. What’s noteworthy about KPMG Consulting’s Microsoft Dot.com practice is that it combines such business expertise and an approach to building scalable Window 2000-based infrastructures along with the focus on time to market that has characterized e-Business services up to this point.”

KPMG Consulting’s new Microsoft Dot.com practice incorporates Microsoft’s complete suite of leading software solutions and services with a collaborative development lab in which customers and a dedicated team of e-business consultants can work together on the rapid development and deployment of Windows 2000-based dot.com businesses.
“

“We are pleased to expand our alliance with KPMG to enable customers to take advantage of a comprehensive Dot.com roadmap that covers every phase of e-business implementation,
“said Peter Boit, vice president, eBusiness Solutions Group at Microsoft.”
The winning combination of KPMG Consulting’s proven business and technology knowledge and the Windows 2000 platform enables faster time to market, accurate delivery of dot.com businesses and the flexibility and reliability to grow quickly. Customers are able to start taking advantage of this initiative today, which is further evidence of our commitment to making the Internet a practical reality for dot.com businesses.
“

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software – any time, any place and on any device.

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